Episode 89 - What is this, disease for ants? | MRD in AML with Dr Jad Othman

What happens when you take someone who is really really ridiculously good at haematology and also a really really ridiculously nice person as well? You get Dr Jad Othman, consultant Haematologist and Haematopathologist at Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney who will be joining us today to discuss the use of measurable residual disease in acute myeloid leukaemia.Dr Othman is well suited to this topic, having written his doctoral thesis on molecular disease assessment in AML, sitting on the European LeukaemiaNet (ELN)-DAVID MRD Working Group as well as numerous ALLG AML and MDS working groups. We're delighted to have him field the Bloody Minded Crew's questions today. Timestamps01:00 - The boys making outdated millenial references02:50 - Getting to know Dr Jad Othman09:50 - The concept of MRD11:55 - Lab techniques for MRD17:59 - Why doesn't everyone have an MRD marker?20:51 - What makes a good MRD assay?24:14 - Patients without a molecular MRD marker26:21 - Clinical case30:30 - What we do with MRD results31:47 - The NPM1/FLT3 PB/BM situation35:31 - Why MRD is actually helpful39:40 - Why single agent treatment in AML is challenging44:33 - The 2025 ELN DAVID update48:44 - Does doing MRD improve OS?52:21 - The INTERCEPT study55:41 - Wrap up and summarySupport the showCheck out show notes, additional references and (sometimes) extra content at www.bloodyminded.com.au